


The Lamentable Tale of Hypothermic Immigrants

by orphan_account



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: American Revolution, Bromance in the snow, Cold Weather, Cute, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gen, Hercules Mulligan needs no introduction, Immigrants Get the Job Done, Male Friendship, Minor Alexander Hamilton/Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler, Poor Alexander, Revolution, Snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 19:45:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8298142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It's the coldest night in the Revolutionary War, and two immigrants are sitting in George Washington's tent freezing their ears off. Friends to the rescue? Meanwhile, John Laurens is missing, and everyone's starting to get worried. Zero degree weather is not a good time to get lost, especially when said friends are getting hypothermia... No slash. Please read and review!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SkatingGhosts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkatingGhosts/gifts).



> Please leave a review if you read and enjoyed it, even if it's only saying, "good job, I liked it." You'll make me so happy.
> 
> I'm terrible at coming up with names, BTW, so if you have a better idea please let me know.

Alexander Hamilton wrapped another jacket around his shoulders and plodded through the snow.  _Will not get frostbite, must not get frostbite..._ He reached his destination and pushed aside the flap to George Washington's tent. Sure, the general was out right now, but he wouldn't mind if his loyal secretary and right-hand-man went in for just a minute. After all, there was a fire pit in the middle... 

Alexander stepped into the tent and sighed as a wave of warmth struck him. He closed his eyes as the snow crystals in his hair began to melt and trickle down his neck.  _Peace and solitude at last..._

"Ah, you too, mon ami?"

Alexander opened his eyes and looked over to the fire, where Lafayette sat by the fire wrapped in blankets. He raised the tankard in his hand weakly. "I suppose zat we are not built for zis kind of weather. Come and sit down."

"Thanks." Alexander sat down next to his friend and held out his hands to the crackling flames. He glanced over at Lafayette. "How long have you been here?"

The frenchman shrugged. "Two, pearhaps three minutes. Not very long. I juzt hope zat Monsieur Washington will not mind."

"He won't care if he doesn't find out." Alexander grabbed the edge of one of Lafayette's blankets and pulled it around himself as well. "What would he do if we froze to death?" he added, as he reached up and undid his soggy ponytail.  

"Hey, do not get me wet too," said Lafayette, flicking away the locks of Alexander's hair that had landed on his shoulder. "I'm just beegining to get dry. Here, do you want some of zis?" He handed his tankard to Alexander, who examined it suspiciously. 

"Now this I know we aren't supposed to have." 

"Ze bottle was underneath ze general's cot. What is ze use of perfectly good wine if it eez just going to freeze?" He looked up guiltily. "See, I saved it." 

"Might as well destroy the evidence." Alexander took a large gulp.

They sat in silence for a while, passing the cup back and forth, before Lafayette said, "I am still just as cold." 

"Me too," Alexander agreed. "I've lived in America for a while, and I've never seen a winter like this." 

"Well, then again, you were not freezing your derriere off in a tent," said Lafayette.

"I know, and I doubt I'll last the night." 

"Oh, you poor thing," said Lafayette sympathetically, wrapping another blanket around Alexander. "If you like, we can try to build a fire in our tent, or somesing like zat. Zen again, we should be in enormous trouble were we caught..." 

"Probably not worth the risk, but thanks anyway." 

"By ze way," said Lafayette. "Where is John?"  

"How would I know?" 

"Well, you are always togezzer in your leetle essay club." 

"John left to bring some message to another tent, and I came here." Alexander took the tankard back. "I haven't seen him for twenty minutes or so." 

The tent flap was pulled aside suddenly, and both immigrants looked up as the floor became spattered with the last rays of the dying sun. Hercules Mulligan stepped into the tent and glanced over at his friends. 

"Aww, look at you two, all snuggled up," he said with a smirk.

"Mon ami, you have returned." 

"Obviously." Hecules ripped off his jacket and satchel, and flung them across the tent. "What's wrong, you can't take the cold?"

"It feels like hell froze over outside," said Alexander miserably. "Evil and cold."

"Ah, well, war in the winter can feel like that," said Hercules. 

"And you are not cold?" asked Lafayette. 

Hercules snorted. "No. In Ire-"

"No more about Ireland!" Lafayette snapped. 

Alexander winced. The cold seemed to have leached out of most of his body, and instead spread down to his toes. He felt drowsy, stiff, and numb. 

"Hey," said Lafayette, as Alexander slumped against him. "Non. No sleeping." He pushed Alexander. "Get off of me. I refuse to be your pillow." 

"Hmm?" Alexander blinked awake. "Oh, sorry."

"ANY-way," said Hercules. "Where's John?"

"I had hoped maybe you would know," said Lafayette. 

"No idea. Should we go look for him?" 

"Noooo," Alexander whined. "It's too cold." 

"Is John not more eemportant? Up, man." Lafayette stood, pulling all the blankets with him. "Come on, ze wine is gone, anyway." Lafayette groaned. "Alezander, eef you come in search of John, I will be geeve you one of my blankets tonight." 

"Here, I've got this." Hercules picked Alexander up and carried him outside of the tent. He set him down in the snow. "There. Now march."

"Which way are we going?" Alexander asked.

"Left," said Lafayette as he came out of the tent. "Let's go." 

 

The three started off and wove their way through the tents. Most of the soldiers were huddled around fire pits or sitting in their tents, but the few that they did speak to said they hadn't seen John anywhere. They stopped to look into the tents that he was likely to be in, but always found nothing. Hercules pressed Alexander to try to remember which tent John had brought a message to, but Alexander found that in the cold, his brain as well as his body seemed to have gone completely numb. Eventually as they struggled on, it seemed that Lafayette was also growing cold, though he tried to hide it. Several times, one of them would slip and fall, usually resulting in the other falling as well when they tried to help each other up. With each passing minute the two grew colder, wetter, and more regretful that they had ever left the tent in the first place. 

Finally they ran across a young man who told them he had seen John nearby. "I think he might be in the dining tent," the man said. 

"Thank God," Alexander muttered. Finally. He loved all of his friends, and would probably die for them if he had to, but this was just ridiculous. 

Hercules pulled aside the tent flap and they stepped inside. There was John Laurens, was lying face down on a table. Alexander felt another chill run through him, but this time not from cold. He stumbled forward towards the table. "Laurens..." he said weakly as he reached the table's edge 

At that moment, John rolled over. "Oh, hey, Alexander," he said merrily. "I was wondering when you'd show up."  

There were cuts and bruises on his face and a trickle of dried blood running down his chin, but in spite ofthat, he seemed cheerful. He sat up, rubbing his head. "Is something the matter? You look awful."

"We've been looking for you, in the freezing cold," Hercules said. "What on earth were you -"

At that moment, Alexander fainted. 

"Whoa! What's wrong with you?!" John jumped off the table and caught his friend in his arms before he hit the floor. He glanced up at Lafayette and Hercules. "You don't look so good either, Laf." 

Lafayette trembled from the cold, teeth chattering. "I'm really fine... just very, very...cold..."

"Hmm." John looked down at the unconscious Alexander. "Well, this might be a problem." 

"A problem?" echoed the tailor, surprised. "How?"

"Well you see, Mr. Warm-blooded, there's this thing called freezing to death that's not all that uncommon," said John as he dragged Alexander over. "Here, carry him. Let's get you both to the general's tent to lie down." 

"Die, of a cold?" asked Hercules in surprise. 

"Don't mock me," Lafayette whimpered. "I am chilled to ze bone..."

"Here, give him my scarf. Lafayette, you take my jacket." Joh removed both and tossed them to his friends. 

"The general won't be happy about zat," Lafayette mumbled as he leaned against John. 

"If we don't get you guys somewhere warm, you'll die, and somehow I get the feeling that would make him more unhappy. Whoa, you're soaked... anyway, come on." 

 

 

"What is the meaning of this?" General Washington snapped. Normally his tent was private, no one permitted in, save for on some sort of duty. As loyal as many of his soldiers were, the general did not allow any exceptions to that. Ever. 

And yet when he walked in, he was greeted with the sight of John Laurens and Hercules Mulligan kneeling next to his cot (moved next to the fire pit) for no apparent reason, though Laurens jumped up at the general's approach. "Mr. Laurens, Mr. Mulligan, may I ask why you have rearranged my furniture?" 

"We're taking care of Laf and Alexander, sir," said Laurens. 

Washington pressed a hand to his forehead. This was just too much for one day, and he was already tired as it was. "You mean to tell me," he said slowly, "that my aide-de-camp and one of my officers are here." 

"Yes, sir," said Mulligan.

"In my tent." 

"Yes, but -"

"In my _bed_." 

"Yes, sir, but -"

" _Together."_

" ** _Yes_** , sir," replied Laurens exasperatedly, "but we brought them here because -." 

"Explain yourself." 

Laurens sighed."Sir, it's freezing outside," he said. "Alexander fainted. So did the marquis, on the way here." 

"Yes, but  _why_ are they here?" 

"Because, sir, as I've been trying to tell you," said Laurens, "they've both gone numb from the cold, and I was afraid that they were going to die. And for some reason, we can't seem to get them warm..."

_Strange._  What an odd day this was turning out to be.Laurens, bloody and bruised, Mulligan kneeling on the floor, Marquis de Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton sleeping in _his_ bed, in his _private tent_... Washington looked over at the spot where his bed had used to be. All of the things he had put underneath it were still there.  _No,_ he realized. The bottle of wine he kept around in case important guests were visiting was missing.  _Oh, you two will be the death of me, if you aren't the death of yourselves first..._

"Sir?" asked Mulligan, standing uncertainly. 

"They were drinking," said Washington. "Alcohol lowers one's internal temperature." 

Laurens groaned. "Of course, the idiots..." 

"All the same," said the general. "Fond as I am of the two, I cannot extend special privileges -"

"But sir, they'll die!" Laurens exclaimed. 

"I doubt that, but all the -"

"Sir," said Laurens, speaking over him. "Even if we wished to bring them back to our tent - which we don't, as there's no fire - we couldn't move them. They're both unconscious. I had to drag Lafayette here, as it is." 

Washington studied the young man. Behind his gentle brown eyes there burned a fierce fire and a deep protectiveness for his friends, and somehow Washington knew he wouldn't be getting any of them out of his tent. 

"Very well," he said. "Although that bed is really not made to support two people..."

"We have to save both of them or neither at all, sir," Mulligan said. Washington just shook his head, wondering how many times the two would interrupt him. 

"Fine. But I want them back to your tent as soon as possible. Also, please don't tell any of the men about this. I wouldn't want them to think they can march in here whenever they wish. And you will not be doing that, either, after this occasion," he added, pointing firmly at both of them.

"Yes, sir," said Mulligan and Laurens in unison.

"And for your sake, I hope no one walks in here. You can imagine that it looks fairly bad if people assume I'm playing favorites."

"With all due respect, Your Excellency, I think it would look a whole lot worse if they died," said Laurens.

_Sassy,_ Washington noted with amusement. "As you were." The general swept another glance across the tent, then nodded to Mulligan and Laurens and left. 

 

Alexander could feel a warm hand on his forehead, a blanket spread over him.  _Where am I?_ he wondered. His head ached, and his ears were icy cold, but otherwise he felt fairly warmer than before. Slowly, he opened his eyes. He was lying in a cot rolled up in blankets, with John bending over him, holding a warm cloth on his brow.

"Hey," said John. "You're awake."

"Where are we?" asked Alexander.

"We're in the general's tent. You and Laf passed out."

"Mon ami, I wish you would not call me Laf," said the lump of blankets next to Alexander. Lafayette rolled over. "It is a disgrace to my good name."

"Well, you can't expect me to call you Marie." 

"My name is  _not_ Marie. It is Marie Jose-"

"Someone stop him or we'll be here forever," Alexander groaned. 

"Rude." Lafayette looked up at John. "What has happened to your face, mon ami?" 

Alexander glanced up as well. The blood was gone now, but now that he looked closer he could still see some bruises along John's cheeks. 

"Oh, you know. Ran into some guys I don't like. I say slavery's bad. They say 'fight me'. The usual." John shrugged. "Funny how fighting actually warms you up considerably."

"Huh." Alexander tried to sit up, but John pushed him back down.

"Nope, you need to rest. If we don't get your temperature up, we could have a serious problem."

"I can get warm sitting up just as easily as lying up," Alexander complained.

"Maybe, but I'm not taking any chances. Herc went to get you some jackets and socks, since yours were all wet. And until he gets back, you will lie down and try to get warm. Dig me?"

Alexander tried to scowl, but a grin crept over his face all the same. 

"I mean it, you idiot. You scared me half to death." John glared at them. "You're lucky I love you guys, or you'd be dead in the ground." 

"Sorry, mon ami," said Lafayette weakly. "Forgive us?" 

"Yeah, yeah." 

"Thanks, John," said Alexander. "I'm grateful. Really." 

"Prove it by sleeping and staying alive. I really don't want to have to explain to Eliza why I got her boyfriend killed." Alexander blushed at this remark. John smirked and hit him lightly on the shoulder. "That goes for you too, Marie," he said. 

"John..." Lafayette groaned. 

"Laf, I'm sorry, but you do realize that you have a girl's name, right?" 

"Do I look like a girl to you?"

"Kind of," said Alexander. 

"Zis conversation is becoming offensive," Laf grumbled as John laughed. "Good night, or whatever it is."

To Alexander's surprise, Lafayette snuggled up against him, laid his head on his shoulder, and fell asleep almost instantly. 

"You should sleep, too, if you can," said John. "The general's looking for an excuse to kick us out, so you don't want to look too healthy."

"John." 

"Yo?"

"I am grateful to you. Really. For saving me for Eliza." 

"Has it maybe crossed your mind that I saved you for me, too?" John shook his head. "Anyway, you're welcome." He pressed the cloth against Alexander's forehead again. "Go to sleep, Alexander." 

What with the warmth of the tent and the gentleness of his friend's voice, Alexander didn't have much choice but to obey. 

**Author's Note:**

> So, you maybe noticed that I switch around between their first and last names depending on who's viewing them, but I keep Lafayette's name the same throughout most of the story (except that one bit at the end). He has about a million first and middle names, so I figured just sticking with "Lafayette" would be the best way to refer to America's favorite fighting Frenchmen. Anyway, once again, though you could see that ending as Lams, I didn't mean it that way, as I don't write slash and ship Eliza/Alexander/Angelica as hard as possible. So yeah. Review? Please?


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